52 Weeks of Sharing Memories: New Year's Celebrations (Week 1)

Over the years I've learned that keeping a journal is not always easy. Yet it's important for future generations. If we want to preserve the past, our own memories will one day be as valuable as those of our great-grandmothers. Our descendants will be thrilled to find a journal chronicling our lives and the lives of our parents and grand-parents.

So with this in mind, this year finds me engaged on a new set of topics to help focus my personal genealogy journal writing. I hope you will join me - either by posting here on this blog,on your own blog, or keeping a private journal. But please do keep one! Your great-great-great grandchildren will thank you for it.

The topic for this week is New Year's Celebrations

* How did your family celebrate New Year's?

* What is the first New Year's you remember?

* How do you celebrate New Year's with your family?

My parents went out to parties on New Year's Eve so it wasn't until I was a married woman that my own traditions began.

For the past 30 or more years, my one brother and I have celebrated together. He and his wife (and children when younger) came to my home on Dec. 31st. We either went out to the movies - a bad movie only, that's the tradition - or we rented one.

Chinese Food was always ordered in and after a night of movie watching and gorging on Chinese take-out, we would watch the ball drop on Times Square in New York. The obligatory of bubbly was always cracked open at midnight, a glass drunk and then to bed!

This year he is in Florida with his fiance so our annual tradition was a no-go. But it's been fun and perhaps it's time to start a new tradition! Sadly I rarely make it to midnight anymore, I always end up going to bed before the clock strikes 12.

6 comments:

My parents always chose to stay in for New Year's. I asked my mom at one time why they never went out for the evening, and she explained to me that the first NYE after they adopted me (after trying for 3 years to become pregnant), they did go out to a NYE party and were almost hit by a drunk driver on their way home. Mom and Dad decided at that moment that going out on such a crazy night wasn't worth the risk of not coming home to their children now that they were parents.

When I was a kid, Mom & Dad always allowed us to have friends sleep over on NYE, they'd make a ton of food, buy noise makers and sparkling cider, and let us stay up to watch Dick Clark.

What is the first New Year's you remember?

I really don't know.

How do you celebrate New Year's with your family?

Prior to hooking up with my husband in 2008, I went out with friends every NYE -- celebrating and partying in New York City, Vegas, Tahoe, etc. But, since dating and then marrying (in 2009) Jeff, we have chosen to celebrate with a quiet night at home each year (the kids are always at their Mom's on NYE). We plan a really special meal, have our favorite champagne, and cuddle up in front of a great movie. For us, we love the opportunity to wind down from the hectic Thanksgiving to post-Christmas whirlwind and usher in a less stressful new year.

This year I am going to keep up with your prompts, I fell short last year. I love your prompts, it is amazing to me when my daughter puts up her prompts they are sometimes similar to yours and neither of you sees the other's blog.I would say great writer's minds.Thanks for these, I know you are a busy lady.Fran

Hi Fran - I guess there are some topics/prompts that are fairly common. But that is funny about your daughter! Synchronicity at work? Glad you are joining us again this year, don't worry about falling behind, so did I! I do my brief stories on my blog every week but I have much more to say and I save that extra detail for my private journal. Last year I missed a few so have to hurry and catch up :-)

I'm an incurable collector of
antiques, an avid genealogist and a messy but creative cook! I blog, i write history and genealogy books. My main genealogy website is Olive Tree Genealogy http://olivetreegenealogy.com/

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